Sverdlovsk Regional Public Institution of Road Management announced the results of the contract auction that took place on December 12, 2005. Bids were offered for the privilege of capturing a state contract on management of highways maintained through the regional budget over the months of January to June 2006. Sverdlovskavtodor Federal State Unitary Enterprise happened to be the winning bidder and now has a strip of Perm-Yekaterinburg bypass, which is an 841002,000 RUR contract, and the Yekaterinburg-Tyumen highway (25th to 147th km), which is a 152982,000 RUR contract, at its disposal.

‘We’ve lost some hundred thousand dollars due to cancelled and delayed flights, Sergei Busko, GD of Mir Travel Company, reported during today’s press conference. ‘We had to look for other ways of making sure our clients arrived safely to their holiday destinations, we also had to cover all the trip and accommodation expenses while a suitable rearrangement was being adjusted. Our losses can be described as tremendous but not devastating, and it’s now the company’s top priority to recover financially,’ Mr Busko said. ‘We managed to arrange our clients’ trips through other flights, and some of

According to Yulia Fedorova, Koltsovo airport spokesperson, two Moscow carriers applied for regular flights between Moscow and Yekaterinburg in the end of 2005. ‘However, the decision on whether to give them any slots hasn’t been arrived at yet. Such flights are currently performed by three airlines, and two more carriers mean the arrival of fierce competition, especially given that large airlines can afford lower-than-the-market prices.’ Ms Fedotova notes that there have also been applications from some foreign carriers, an Austrian airline (scheduled to start operating in April 2006), a

According to the spokesperson for Beloyarskaya nuclear power plant, BN-600, a power generating unit, was working at power rating level and fully met the electricity-generating requirements for all of 2005. There hadn’t been any safety or limit violations either, and the rare gas activity breakthrough in December comprised 0.2% of the upper limit. The radiation level in the town of Zarechniy and the power plant site was not any bigger than usual and fluctuated between 4 and 20 microroentgen per hour, which is believed to be typical of Russia. The corresponding figures for Beloyarskoye

According to the spokesperson for Sverdlovsknefteproduct JSC, the official dealer of Sibneft JSC (Siberian supplier) in Sverdlovsk Region, the company managed to keep the mineral oil prices at their filling stations stable throughout the year 2005. ‘We believe this is due to a moratorium declared by some oil companies,’ the spokesperson reports. The same is true of Ural Oil Company (TNC JSC), says the company’s representative. ‘We aren’t planning to have the mineral oil prices go up since the wholesale prices have decreased by the end of the year,’ the representative of the company’s Sales

Mortgage Housing Loan Agency JSC introduced a differential interest rate on mortgage credits depending on the scale of the initial payment and loan terms on January 1, 2006. This means that what was previously just one credit type is now going to expand to six different types of loans varying depending on the crediting conditions. Thus, the initial payment of 70% to 50% and 1- to 15-year loan terms determine the rate of 12%. The upper interest rate limit is set at 16% and applies to credits with the 10% to 30% initial payment and a 15- to 30-year term. The beginning of the year was also

Yekaterinburg is going to receive over a billion RUR for road building and maintenance as well as for municipal improvements. 532 million RUR have already been reserved in the city budget. The other half should presumably come from the funds of Sverdlovsk Region Territorial Road Fund. The town council is planning to exceed last year’s output in this sphere during 2006.

‘Delays and cancellations of three Mir Travel Company-booked flights are caused by failing to pay promptly’, Mikhail Churkanov, GD of Transglobal Airline CJSC, announced at today’s press conference. ‘According to our contract with Mir, it had to pay for the flights no later than December 22, 2005. The last payment was only made on December 28 though, and, consequently, we were unable to conduct all the negotiations needed, including those with the host companies,’ Mr Churkanov said. ‘We’ve suffered considerable losses: the exact amount is currently being specified. Yet we intend to transfer

Sverdlovsk Region Court of Arbitration is to consider the suit brought by Kamishlovskiy Metalloobrabativayushiy Zavod CJSC (Metalworking plant of Kamishlov) against Eurogreen Financial Investment Company today. As the plant’s spokesperson told the agency’s representative, the reason of suing Eurogreen is its violating the shareholders’ selling privilege (the sales transaction was conducted on October 20). The plant puts special emphasis on seeing the purpose of the suit as bringing in the verdict of the transaction being illicit.

KES Holding sees the state of events in regional consumer power supply caused by some municipalities’ non-payments and deliberate insolvency as critical, goes the company’s press release. Among the debtors are Billing Center PLC (Holding member), Gavan PLC of Rezh, Bazhenovskoye Housing and Comunal Services Unitary Enterprise, Upravleniye municipalnogo zakazchika Unitary Enterprise, and the water supply factories Alapaevskiy Vodokanal PLC, Vodokanal Unitary Enterprise of Nizhneturinskiy District, and Vodokanal Unitary Enterprise of Beloyarsk. According to the release, Billing Center PLC is

‘Transglobal Airline CJSC abided and satisfied its liabilities under the contract with Mir Travel Company. Aircrafts ready to bring the passengers to Salzburg(Austria), Goa(India) and Bali(Indonesia) were ready for departure at Koltsovo airport. Yet Mir Travel Company did not pay for the flights timely: we only had the prepayment, not the full pay. That is why the decision to call them off was made,’ General Director of Transglobal Airline Mikhail Churkanov said to the agency’s representative. According to Mr Churkanov, after January 20 the downtime costs of Transglobal airline will be summed